Vilabuly fire, February 2023 Vilabuly
The fire started on 24 February 2023 in Vilabuly, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,158 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 12th largest in Savannakhet since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 36 in Laos in 2023, of 214.
- Burnt area
- 7,158ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 32days
- 24 Feb 2023 – 27 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 385
- in a single hotspot: 335 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.6GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 29 Mar.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 576 ha in 2016, 3,953 ha in 2019, 4,347 ha in 2020, 5,077 ha in 2021, 5,955 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,095 ha that had burned before.
- 5,818 ha Vilabuly fire, March 2022 8,618 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,063 ha Vilabuly fire, March 2021 11,672 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,513 ha Vilabuly fire, February 2020 4,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,834 ha Vilabuly fire, March 2020 4,952 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,079 ha Vilabuly fire, March 2019 3,774 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 137 ha Vilabuly fire, April 2022 6,558 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Vilabuly where it started7,197 ha reached on 24 Feb4.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Feb | 28.7 °C | 46 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 25 Feb | 22.7 °C | 58 % | 68 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 26 Feb | 23.1 °C | 54 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Feb | 23.5 °C | 57 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Feb | 27.1 °C | 52 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 1 Mar | 29.1 °C | 45 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 2 Mar | 28.1 °C | 43 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Mar | 28.9 °C | 41 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 4 Mar | 27.4 °C | 47 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Mar | 27.2 °C | 49 % | 52 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Mar | 29.7 °C | 39 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Mar | 30.5 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Mar | 31.5 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Mar | 29.3 °C | 46 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Mar | 32.4 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Mar | 33.1 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 12 Mar | 29.8 °C | 45 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 13 Mar | 24.2 °C | 63 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Mar | 30.7 °C | 39 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Mar | 34.8 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Mar | 33.5 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Mar | 35.8 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Mar | 35.9 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Mar | 37.3 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Mar | 36.4 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Mar | 36.6 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Mar | 38.4 °C | 33 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 23 Mar | 37.0 °C | 39 % | 49 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Mar | 38.7 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Mar | 38.4 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Mar | 36.1 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 4.5 mm | Low 10 |
| 27 Mar | 32.5 °C | 58 % | 43 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 28 Mar after | 30.4 °C | 56 % | 35 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 29 Mar after | 30.0 °C | 60 % | 24 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 5 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 385Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 8,618 haVilabuly3 March 2022 · 13 days · 3 km away
- 11,672 haVilabuly9 March 2021 · 22 days · 5 km away
- 6,558 haVilabulyApril 2022 · 6 days · 13 km away
- 7,241 haVilabuly24 March 2026 · 25 days · 19 km away
- 11,085 haXaybuathong25 February 2020 · 26 days · 36 km away
- 6,683 haXaybuathong9 March 2021 · 12 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vilabuly fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 February 2023 to 27 March 2023 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 March 2023 to 23 March 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,158 hectares (71.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Vilabuly (7,197 ha, 4.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Laos (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.